HomeOS
DeveloperMicrosoft Research
Working stateUnknown (as of October 2013)
Official websitewww.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/homeos-enabling-smarter-homes-for-everyone/

HomeOS was the working title of a home automation operating system being developed at Microsoft Research in the early 2010s.[1][2] Microsoft Research announced the project in 2010 and abandoned it in 2012.[3]

HomeOS communicated with Lab of Things, a cloud-based Internet of Things infrastructure also developed by Microsoft.[4][5][6]

Microsoft's slogan for their HomeOS project was "Enabling smarter homes for everyone."[7]

Microsoft's HomeOS development team has written three sample applications that make use of multiple devices, including a "sticky media" app that plays music in parts of the house that are lit up, but not other rooms; a two-factor authentication app that uses audio from smartphones and images from a front-door camera to turn on lights when a user is identified; and a home browser for viewing and controlling a user's access to all devices in a home.[8]

Some staff who worked on the project cited Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's focus on enterprise applications, productivity software, and cloud computing as the reason for the stalled development.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Dixon, Colin; Mahajan, Ratul; Agarwal, Sharad; Brush, A.J.; Lee, Bongshin; Saroiu, Stefan; Bahl, Victor (April 2012). "An Operating System for the Home". Microsoft Research – Publications. Microsoft. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  2. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (10 September 2010). "Microsoft experiments with 'HomeOS' and home app store ideas". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Microsoft had a plan to automate your home before Apple and Google — but never did it". businessinsider.com. 4 December 2015.
  4. ^ "Lab of Things Wiki". CodePlex. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  5. ^ Higginbotham, Stacey (15 July 2013). "Microsoft pushes HomeOS further with Lab of Things, but where's the mobile angle?". Gigaom. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  6. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (15 July 2013). "Microsoft adds a Lab of Things to its HomeOS". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  7. ^ "HomeOS homepage". Microsoft.
  8. ^ ""Microsoft's HomeStore: Home automation, with an iPhone-inspired twist"". zd.net. 7 October 2010.

External links

External links

Operating systems by Microsoft
Microsoft Research (MSR)
Ambient intelligence
Categories